Crazy Story of the Week

There are many news items these days that recall that great line from Randall Jarrell’s comic novel about academia, Pictures from an Institution, that runs: “President Robbins made a speech that—a Gertrude said, you had to hear it not to believe it.” This week brings one that is off the chart for this category. From The Telegraph:

Women who identify as men are not being routinely offered potentially life saving NHS screening for breast and cervical cancer, amid fears it might offend them it is claimed.

However men living as women are being invited for cervical smear tests even though they do not have a cervix, an official guidebook states.

I suppose if an unscreened “woman” gets breast cancer, we can just identify it as prostate cancer. Problem solved!

There are other lines in the news article that threaten to put The Onion out of business:

Studies have reported most trans men have not had their wombs removed. . . A video accompanying the guidance explains that smear tests can be “uncomfortable” for trans men, as “it is often a procedure designed for women.”

Looks like the people who say political correctness kills have a point.